Page 36 of Lockout

With that, he walked out the door and left me to mull over his words. It wasn’t even that I was trying to deny myself. I just didn’t know how to move forward with her without fucking up her life. Not that it mattered now, the thing she’d worked the hardest for was already fucked up. Maybe this was my chance and we’d put the pieces of her career back together afterward.

Reaching forward, I grabbed the pack of beer and pulled it closer. Once I got the LoS sorted out, I’d put my plan for Keely into action.

CHAPTER 16

Lockout

“Thanks, Cypher,” I said into the phone.

“Sorry I can’t make it tonight, Brother,” he replied. “With most of my guys heading down your way, it’s up to me to take care of the next couple of missions.”

I swore. “If it’s going to impact you, I can make do without them, Cy. I don’t want to leave you short-handed.”

“Naw, I’m just bitter I’m not going to get to go on a bender tonight. Besides, the guys should be there anytime. These missions are simple and I kept Scythe, Cynic, Glitch, and Torque. I have plenty of help.”

“Bet they’re pissed they don’t get to come party.”

“It’s like I stole their first-born babies, that’s how much they’re bitching,” Cypher said with a heavy sigh. “They’ll get over it.”

“The fuck we will!”

I chuckled at Cynic’s shouted words as they echoed over the line. “Guess this’ll go on the building piles of IOUs.”

He snorted. “Brother, we don’t owe each other shit. We help where we can and that’s about it.”

I needed more numbers to help protect Billie’s farm and the apartment full of women and children while we went after the LoS. Not to mention just beefing up our numbers because the LoS was like a cockroach infestation. They had men everywhere all the fucking time.

I’d already called and spoken to Ruck, the president of The Saint’s Outlaws MC over in Phoenix. They were more than happy to pitch in, since the LoS was a headache for them as well.

Everyone from the Saint’s Outlaws and those who Cypher could spare, were coming down for the patch in party tonight. It was going to be a damn good time. The official and adopted grandmothers—they’d all given themselves the title even if the children weren’t their kids—were on babysitting duty. Seek, Jenny, and Jordan’s mothers had shown up earlier and whisked the kids away in a loud, slightly psychotic, rush of grins and baby talk. I had it on good authority that Dani and Keely’s mother was trying to get plane tickets so she could come join in the grandmother night in.

That left everyone free tonight and not having to worry about their kids. The women would probably still worry, but nevertheless, I hoped they would be able to kick back and have some fun. It might be the last for a while. So much had been happening, I hadn’t managed to get Keely alone again after our impromptu flight together. I was hoping to corner her tonight and talk to her again.

I was still keeping an eye on her. Of course she didn’t know that. But I wanted to hear her laugh again. See her smile my way. It was just a relief to have her home instead of halfway across the fucking country. Maybe Idaho was right. Maybe itwasmy turn.Keely would make one hell of an old lady, and she was exactly the right type for a president’s woman. She was friends with all the women, even Scarlett, and they all banded together in times of need. She fit in perfectly.

Saying goodbye to Cypher, I hung up the phone right when the door of my office burst open. My hand went immediately to the holster that I had under my desk, the Glock hidden there was a familiar weight in my palm. I didn’t draw it just in case it was one of the kids or women.

“The fun has arrived,” Warrant said, with a shit-eating grin as he stomped into my office.

“That’s a good way to take some lead to the chest, Brother,” I growled at him.

He paused, then shrugged. “Fuck, sorry. Didn’t realize you’d be so jumpy, Lock.” He flopped down in the chair across from my desk as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

He was Cypher’s Sergeant at Arms and with both Cypher and Scythe—the VP—staying back in Wyoming, he was officially in charge of the Wyoming crew while they were here. I trusted him as much as I trusted Cypher. Warrant was a good man, a good fighter, but he was a lot like Toxic. Dangerous when he wanted to be, but a fucking goof-off the rest of the time.

No, that wasn’t right, he was worse about that than Toxic. Cypher had told me about most of Warrant’s practical jokes and fuck did they end up getting him into trouble more often than not. Like the time he pissed on the air conditioning compressor outside the Sheriff’s station in Sentinel—the town they lived in up in Wyoming. He’d sat there, laughing his ass off as the deputies had come running out gagging. It wasn’t a very large station and the smell of piss had permeated in it for weeks, according to Cypher.

Warrant had kept laughing as they arrested him and tossed his ass in a cell. He’d spent the rest of the time hanging outwith, and teasing, his best friend, one of the deputies. Warrant’s best friend was a cop. Apparently, Warrant’s buddy had told him he couldn’t come out and fuck off because he had to work, so Warrant got arrested just to spend some time with his friend. That’s how his mind worked.

He was in a one percent, vigilante, motorcycle club. And still, he was best friends with his childhood friend who’d joined law enforcement. That just told a person everything they needed to know about Warrant. Not to mention he worked in a security firm for his president, who took jobs all over the world that involved some of the most dangerous groups out there.

They didn’t work for the government though. Not anymore. It was better said that they worked parallel to them. They worked in the civilian world now, even though they still brushed elbows with all the different military and governmental agencies. Cypher didn’t like to be beholden to anyone. I didn’t blame him, it was why I got out of the military too.

“You settling in over at Cholla Summit Ranch?” I asked.

“Yeah. Stopped there first so we could drop all our shit. Rotor and Jury are out there now, keeping an eye on things.”

“There’s enough apartments for you all to stay here,” I told him, though in actuality there was only one left.

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